Chris and Twister take dirt naps on opening day.......

[gotcoues]

My buddy Nelson and I along with my good friend Harvey have done an excessive amount of scouting this season and have managed to put some quality deer on video during our outings. Harvey has the second hunt, while Nelson and I had the first.

 

We had each picked out bucks to hunt and decided to split up and we agreed after one buck hit the dirt, we would help each other fill their tag.

 

Nelson had his sights on a buck he glassed up in velvet while we were out. We got him on video once in velvet and once hard horned right before the opener. Nelson also checked in on this buck a couple times out on his own as well. We decided anything over 100 was deserving of a name and Nelson went with Chris on his buck. Opening morning Nelson went in early with Harvey and another friend of ours Hank to try and find Chris quick and get on him. We certainly weren't the only one who knew about him and he knew it. After the war zone commenced shortly after daybreak, Chris was no where to be found. They watched as three bucks were shot up in close proximity to where they were glassing. They had the bucks early, but we had these guys on video as well and they were not what was on the menu. Nelson got really lucky and picked Chris up right as he was bedding down. A plan was made and the stalk was on! Nelson and Harvey snuck into about 430 yards, proceeded to get all set up and dialed in and the wait began for Chris to stand up. Not ten minutes later, shots rang out from other hunters shooting at Chris. With no idea where these guys were at, all they could do is glass and try to figure out what happened. Chris didn't come out of the brush and the first assumption was that he was dead. They waited around for a few minutes and then Nelson started putting all his gear away with a few choice words from what I understand. Harvey stayed in the glass, miraculously Chris steps out unharmed and Harvey told Nelson to get behind the gun. Nelson asked Harvey if he was hit and the reply was he looks clean. Nelson fires once dropping Chris in his tracks from a spinal hit. A follow up shot clipped the heart and put him to bed for good. The bummer part of the deal is it turned out it was one of his very good friends on the other ridge. His wife was on her first deer hunt and it was just a bad deal for everyone involved. Chris ended up taping out at 100 1/4". Nelson has informed members of Team Coues Killas he is going 110 or tag soup next yr! Can't wait.......

 

Video footage of Chris in velvet

Try to switch the quality to 1080HD if you can, you might need to let the video load and then switch the setting. The low quality version sucks

 

 

 

My hunt started with my son Dillon and I packing in a spike camp the Saturday prior to the hunt leaving the truck at 3am. We left our tent, sleeping bags, jackets, almost 4 gallons of water in camp. I also stashed our binos and tripods very well before heading back home for the excruciating wait for opening day. It was a brutal endeavor taking almost 4 hours to reach base camp location. My pack weighed in at 85lbs and his right at 40. The elevation change for this climb was around 2500'. While up there we were able to get some really good video of Twister and we stayed the night and came home on Sunday. I really enjoyed being in the middle of nowhere with my boy. It was a special deal indeed.

 

Video footage of Twister from that day

Try to switch the quality to 1080HD if you can, you might need to let the video load and then switch the setting. The low quality version sucks

 

Opening morning found us leaving the truck at 2am, the war party included my good friend Tracy and my son Dillon. We got to base camp in about 3.5 hrs, reshuffled our packs, grabbed the binos and headed for our glassing spot. The morning was slow, with only dinks and does spotted. Late in the morning I caught a glimpse of the funky buck that runs with Twister. He is an old timer with bad attitude toward the other bucks. His rack is in the downhill slide now, but his body size is impressive to say the least with a noticeably bigger body than Twister. They were far, really far and way up high. Not the least bit of what I had hoped for. The weekend before, I could of taken the shot from where we glass. We waited to see if they would come down, but instead they topped over into what I assumed was a bedding area. I told Tracy and D to take a nap and I would stand watch in the binos. After a couple hours pass, I got restless and came up with a really bad plan to stalk in on Twister and get set up for the evening which included a death march to nastiest side of the canyon. I wanted to be able to see him even if he stayed back in the bedding area even though it was a fool’s errand to go that way. Tracy came up with a much better plan and it was time to make a move. We figure patience would be better, headed to the much easier side of the bowl and hoped he would top back over to our favor in the evening. They stayed behind keeping watch and for the next hour and half I moved into position. I found an older set of sheds from "my back up buck" that I also have on video in the area. After I was in position, Tracy and D made their way over. After a while I told Tracy I needed to get some shut eye, I was whooped and ready go down willing or not. Not long into my siesta, I was rudely awaken by Tracy. "J, get up! Get in the gun, he's out." With a lack of grace, I move over to my binos and cannot pick him up. I'm way to far right and by the time I get him in the glass, he tops back over into the bedding area. WE ARE PISSED, cannot believe what just happened. As the wait begins again, I was faced with a tough decision to let my back up buck DKJ walk as he stepped out less than 300 yards away from where we set up. DKJ is a tank 4x4 with great symmetry, probably scoring 110 or better. My plan was to hold out for Twister until Tues morning and then he would be fair game. Easier said than done! Tracy thought I was a nut job for this absurd call and in my head, I was questioning my plan as well. Fortunately, it didn't take too long and he came right back over to feed. We had talked about the shot many times during the wait. With our wind meters and strelok we determined I needed to give him 5" of wind if he came back out. I ranged him at 477 and rolled the dialed to 475. It took me a few minutes to get the gun solid to the point of making Tracy nervous. This was going to be my longest shot to date and my biggest buck, in no way shape or form was I gonna screw this up. My spotters and I were ready and Tracy told me he would call out the shot. I settled in and slowly squeezed off the round. SILENCE ensued…….. I finally look over at T and he said I think you shot high. Immediately after that,, my boy says no, YOU HIT EM. Twister starts to get the wobbles and turns to show Tracy the exit wound. Tracy immediately went crazy telling me I smoked him, center punched the vitals BABY! We were jumping for joy, high fiving and hugging. I had just smoked a giant coues buck! He fell within 20 yards of where he made his last stand. It was 4:30 and we knew he was going to very tough to get to. We hauled butt to the bottom of the canyon and left everything we didn't need by a giant boulder, took gps cords of our stuff and started to head up the other side. I guess when you are in the middle of nowhere, you can leave a kings ransom in gear laying around. As we were closing in on the buck, I took the nastiest fall of my hunting career. I managed to pull a boulder on top me climbing up some rocks. Sent me flying backwards into the biggest desert broom I could find and the boulder proceeded to run me over putting the hurt on my leg and foot. It snapped one of my walking sticks clean in half. After a well-deserved freak out where I called the mountain every name in the book, we managed to make it to Twister right before dark. We took a lot of pictures, but struggled with the group pics because we left our tripods at the bottom. What an ordeal, it took us until 12:30am to get back to our spike camp. Blood, sweat and tears are painted all over this hunt. Tracy taped him out while I packed camp Saturday morning. I had put Twister at 115, maybe better, all the while hoping for 120. He taped out at 122&1/4 with 19" plus main beams and 29 &1/4" of mass. I scored him again today and came up with 124 &1/8, but I tend to be a typical white guy and add a couple inches to my measurements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our buddy Harvey met us on the journey out to help take some weight off our shoulders and bring a cooler full of ice and drinks so we could get the meat and cape on ice when we hit the trucks.

 

This is by far my best accomplishment as a hunter, my passion for coues deer is second to none and I can’t wait to do it all over again.

 

I couldn’t have pulled this off without my son Dillon and Tracy’s help, for which I am very grateful they were there to be a part of this. Also, my wife Colleen is very understanding and supportive of my addiction. I will love her always for letting me be who I am.

 

 

[muledeerarea33?]

Very nice!!

[srfrost45]

Great story and a great looking buck! Glad you got to share it with your boy

[Redman]

congrats on a well earn trophy

[6ANut]

Great story and pictures.

[bstpeter]

Awesome!!

[trphyhntr]

holy cow, what a couple of toads

[elkhunter]

Wow, outstanding and excellent work in all of your preparations!

[Becker]

WOW what a sweet sweet buck!!! Congrats. The other ain't no slough either. Monster bucks for the got coues crew!!! Way to go guys!

[gotcoues]

Thanks guys! We busted our humps hiking and glassing all over timbuck2 and back again. I'll hopefully be posting some more video clips of some quality coues bucks when we assist in getting these other bucks on the ground. It's pretty tough to wear out a pair of boots in one season and we dang near got that off the bucket list already.

[FancyRedneck]

Congrats !

[bowfishAZ]

Thanks for all the kind words!! Like Justin said, we bust our ...'s watching these deer that we share such a strong passion for all year long!! Cant wait to get a few more on the ground!!!

[yumabowhunter]

Hellofabuck!!!

[trophyhnter]

One of the best write-ups so far! What a toad! Huge congrats to all involved! What a well deserved trophy!

[Apache7mm]

Wow great write up and pics, very good looking bucks thanks for sharing.

 

DAN